Chapter 22: Persuading Du to Surrender

  Du Yuanzheng closely pursued Liu Wei, just turning a corner, suddenly saw a dense group of cavalry, fiercely pulling the reins, watching as Liu Wei charged head-on into that group of cavalry. Gongsun Zan was about to order a charge, but seeing that the cavalry in front were all living people, not the expected Lian army vengeful spirits, he ordered the cavalry to be on guard.

  "What are you people? What brings you here?" Du Yuanzheng's heavenly soldiers rushed up behind him, forming four rows, each taking their bows and arrows. However, Gong Sun Ce chose to ignore their bows and arrows directly, as the heavenly soldiers were not something that modern cold weapons could harm. He didn't understand Du Yuanzheng's heavenly soldiers, and it was normal for him to think this way.

  "Qin army! I am the Sima of the Great Qin Army, leading troops to sweep the land, attacking all the way, and killing to this place." Gong Sun Ce rode out alone, walking to the middle ground between the two armies. Du Yuan also did not show weakness, riding alone with Gong Sun Ce in the midst of the two armies' conversation, he had already felt Gong Sun Ce's kindness, otherwise when his troops were not lined up neatly later on, Gong Sun Ce would have launched an attack, and he would not die but lose a layer of skin.

  Qin army? This is a very ancient term in memory, which northwest boy doesn't know? Du Yuanzheng asked in confusion: "What Qin army? Are you going to occupy our Du village too?"

  Gongsun Ce examined Du Yuanzheng from head to toe and saw that his fish-scale armor was a modern mass-produced product. He understood in his heart that Du Yuanzheng didn't know much after all. Because modern products, although still usable for now, would become a pile of rusty scrap metal once the various spiritual beings awakened.

  "Qin army, of course, is the winner! The great Qin of the First Emperor has awakened the military soul of all generations within the divine state. Now they are competing for territory everywhere, expanding their borders and accumulating population. I am the main general of the northwest direction of the Great Qin, Gong Sun Ce." Gong Sun Ce gave himself a title as the main general, anyway, no one would come out to refute him now, besides, what he did was indeed the work of a main general.

  Du Yuanzheng was shocked and asked urgently, "What about the imperial court? The imperial court expanded its army this year, a full 2 million strong, could it be that they were defeated by a group of ghosts wielding cold weapons?! Don't we still have nuclear bombs?" Including the reserve forces, the imperial court claimed to be able to mobilize an army of millions in just one day, and these weren't exaggerated numbers.

  "Haha, I guess they're done for. The military spirit is not afraid of modern firearms, and even if they are killed, they can still come back to life. Ordinary people have no way out, either being beheaded or surrendering, and escaping is impossible." Gong Sun Ce said with a sarcastic tone, continuing: "As for nuclear bombs, in their own country, they dare to launch them today, but tomorrow they will have to step down. Besides, it's still a question whether those things can be launched now, because the imperial court in Yanjing may have already been occupied by the military spirit. How many of those old men do you think can escape?"

  "So that means my country has completely collapsed? Then what should we do?" Du Yuanzheng was still thinking about the imperial court's army conquering all over, and after the imperial court had eliminated the ghosts and monsters around them, he wanted to stay at home and live a carefree life like an immortal. Now that the imperial court had been destroyed, his hopes were also shattered.

  "The court is completely hopeless, even if there are those who fly the banner of the court, I estimate they won't be able to hold on for much longer under the military's attack. So, give up on the court! As for what we should do, this question isn't easy to answer. For example..."

  Gongsun Ce pointed at Du Yuan Zheng and then at himself, satisfying Du Yuan Zheng's curiosity before continuing: "For example, I joined the Great Qin camp, conquered the county city, got promoted and enfeoffed, my family received all kinds of rewards, and we can live a very comfortable life. So I will give my all to Great Qin until I have nothing left to give. As for you..."

  "You now seem to have only two choices. The first is to engage in a fierce battle with me. If you lose, it's all over and you'll ascend to heaven. If you win, there are still 5,000 Qin soldiers in the county town, although they're infantry, it would be easy for them to trample you to avenge me. As for the second choice, it's simple, seemingly guessable." Gong Sun Ce felt the opponent's hostility dissipate, and he also let out a sigh of relief internally.

  "Surrender? The Qin army has a tradition of killing prisoners, the 400,000 Zhao soldiers at Changping were all killed by the Qin army, it's infamous throughout history. To be honest, I don't dare to surrender, if possible, I'd like to take my people and leave this place." Du Yuanzheng suspected that Gong Sunce's words had some exaggeration, but he himself knew his own strength best. If Gong Sunce hadn't spared him, these hundred cavalry would probably have all been buried here.

  Gongsun Zan listened and shook his head, saying: "Wrong! The one who ambushed the Zhao army was Bai Qi, and the one who killed the Zhao army was also Bai Qi. The Qin army is the Qin army, Bai Qi is Bai Qi, and I am Gongsun Zan. Now the person in charge here is me, you can surrender to me, and there are countless benefits!"

  Gongsun Ce again explained the difference between civilian registration and slave registration, which made Du Yuan Zheng frown. Although Gongsun Ce's words highlighted a big difference between civilian registration and slave registration, in Du Yuan Zheng's eyes, there was no difference at all. They were both working hard for the Qin state, and whether they were civilians or slaves, they had no freedom at all, which was not what he wanted.

  "This world is big, but where can you find a place to settle down? Besides the military spirits that have awakened, there are all sorts of evil spirits. In remote areas, it's mostly just demonic and malevolent spirits running amok. Dealing with military spirits, at least you can still hold your head up high, but dealing with those mysterious and bizarre monsters, do you dare to? Anyway, I don't have that idea right now." Gong Sun Ce is not thinking of provoking those hidden evil spirits without getting the heavenly soldiers first.

  "It seems I can only surrender, can you tell me about the treatment? By the way, my name is Du Yuanzheng, and I am a villager from Duvillage." Du Yuanzheng knew that Gong Sun would not waste his breath telling him so much, he was letting him see the situation clearly and make the right choice. What was the right choice, of course, was to surrender to Gong Sun, and it had to be here, otherwise, he wouldn't even think about leaving this place. This could be seen from the fact that the cavalry behind Gong Sun were always on high alert.

  When Du Yanzheng arrived at Songkou, Gongsun Zan was naturally delighted. The treatment he received was generous, although his scale of supporting scholars was limited, but he would eventually rise up, temporarily more, the Qin army could pass, and directly said: "You follow me, your family enjoys civilian status, after accumulating military merit, the reward will be dazzling. If possible, the soldiers under your command can also enjoy such treatment."

  "If I surrender to you, you must ensure the safety of my Du clan. Because the first responsibility I accepted from our tradition is to protect them, and the soldiers under my command are not much weaker than yours, because they can also fight against ghosts and monsters, their abilities are not bad." Du Yuanzheng laid out his entire inheritance situation without leaving any secrets. He was still a bit vague about the inheritance and needed someone to give him a good explanation.

  Listening to Du Yuanzheng say that he and his two hundred men were all merged with the military soul, a word flashed in Gong Sun Ce's mind: Heavenly Soldiers!

  Tianbing is the name after fusion, before fusion it was called Zhansheng, Zhansheng and Junshe are not much different, they can fuse with humans, but Junshe cannot. After fusing, even if the fused warrior dies, he can re-condense into a Zhansheng, and will become stronger. Because Zhansheng is just a soul with combat experience, combat experience is constantly accumulating, so Zhansheng will only become stronger, not weaker, and it's hard to be killed.

  The advantage of the war soul is that it can directly make an ordinary person a heavenly soldier who can fight with the military soul, and the heavenly soldier also has his own clear will, which is conducive to command and has good growth potential. There are even powerful heavenly soldiers, thoroughly refining and integrating the war soul into oneself, becoming a divine general!

  According to Daisy, the disadvantages of Battle Souls are only two. The first is fusion, and Battle Souls have qualification requirements for the fuser. The stronger the Battle Soul, the higher the required qualifications. The second is the death of the Heavenly Soldier, and when re-condensing the Battle Soul, the more powerful the Battle Soul, the longer it takes. However, compared to the advantages of Battle Souls, these two disadvantages can be ignored.

  Du Yuanzheng is the Divine General! The Divine General is just a title, and according to Du Yuanzheng's legacy, the mission of this Divine General is to protect the Du clan. As long as he has control over the Du clan, even if Du Yuanzheng dies, the newly born Divine General will still be loyal to him! So Gong Sun Ce was very particular about placing the Du clan, and anyone who dared to lay a hand on the Du clan would have their arm chopped off along with it!

  "I can, my military merit has been promoted to the sixth rank of Daifu, and according to reason, there will be hundreds of civilian households paying taxes for me, with a good salary income. The Du clan enjoys civilian household registration, no need to participate in various large-scale heavy labor. In peacetime, farming is enough, if life is difficult, I will take out my own salary, never let them starve or freeze. When I have a fiefdom in the future, I will allocate a piece of land for you, exempt from taxes and corvée!"

  Du Yuanzheng didn't understand what corvée was, but he only felt that the ancestral spirit merged with him was cheering and urging him to surrender quickly. It seems that the last condition is very generous, otherwise the part of the ancestor's soul after fusion would not have such a big reaction. Anyway, his own ancestors wouldn't harm him, so Du Yuanzheng surrendered decisively.

  Du Yuanzheng dismounted and knelt on one knee in front of Gongsun Ce's horse, just like the knights in the movies who pledged allegiance to their lord. The hundred cavalrymen behind him also dismounted and followed his example, kneeling on one knee. Although these heavenly soldiers were unwilling, there was a consciousness in their bodies that they could not resist, plus the psychology of following the crowd, so there wasn't much obstacle.

  Du Yuanzheng was still brewing his words, planning to make the surrender ceremony more formal. Gong Sun Ce on horseback was a bit dazed, muttering to himself, everyone is a modern person, do they need to be like this? Liu Wei hiding behind the Yuqi cavalry array rolled his eyes and mocked Gong Sun Ce for being pretentious. Looking at the cavalry who had been chasing him kneeling there, while Gong Sun Ce rode alone with a halberd, was quite cool. His heart felt sour, don't even mention it.

  Du Yuanzheng was about to recite the well-prepared words, but he didn't expect to be interrupted. Du Jianghuai brought 500 strong men and followed him up, seeing that Du Yuanzheng wanted to surrender, how could he be willing? He pointed at Gong Sunce and scolded loudly: "Where did this soulless person come from? Do you think you can bully my brother Du Yuanzheng just because you have more people? Now I have more men than you, shouldn't you kneel down for me?"

  Gongsun Ce and Du Yuan Zheng exchanged a glance, seeing that he was also puzzled, and asked: "What's the character of that guy like? If it's okay, spare his life, if not, get rid of him, lest he harm the neighbors." Gongsun Ce had been leading troops for several days, and more and more valued his own image, how could he allow others to scold him in the face.

  Perceiving the murderous intent in Gong Sun Ce's tone, Du Yuan Zheng began to think carefully about Du Jiang Huai's history of making a fortune. It seems that it is not very glorious, and it is said that he has forcibly occupied several widows within these two days. He was restrained by stability and past relationships and had never managed him before. Now seeing Gong Sun Ce wanting to kill Du Jiang Huai, he naturally would not object and remained silent. Gong Sun Ce smiled, knowing the answer.

  There is also a small reason, that is, the heavenly soldiers under Du Yuanzheng's command are rarely from the Du Jianghuai system, which means that their ancestors do not think highly of him. Such a person, killing him would be justifiable. Anyway, it wouldn't cause much harm to the Du clan, and Du Yuanzheng didn't notice that his thinking is becoming more and more biased towards the interests of the Du clan.

  Du Jiang was relieved that he had arrived early, or else it would have been too late to do anything. Just as he ran to the front of Du Yuanzheng's heavenly soldiers and knelt down, he saw the silver-armored knight who had surrendered pull out a bright knife and fling it at him, then...

  The swift and spinning Goose Wing Knife sliced through Du Jianghuai's neck, without any pause, continuing to fly, and then plunged into the ground, with one foot of the blade entering the earth. Du Jianghuai's head, full of horizontal flesh, rolled onto the ground, his severed neck spouting blood with each heartbeat, steaming hot in the morning air. Du Jianghuai's headless body swayed back and forth before thudding to the ground.

  The robust young men who came with him were quite sharp-eyed and didn't notice the muddy puddles on the ground, and they all knelt down in a dense crowd.